Paul wrote, "I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate" (Rom 7:15). I know what he means. Take, for instance, dieting.
I've been on a diet most of my life. My doctor put me on a diet in junior high. The military kept me thin by force of regulation for 10 years. Of course, age doesn't help, so I've been watching my intake for years now to slim down. It's not working. I track my eating daily and I have one of those handy-dandy Fitbit devices that tracks my exercise. Now I can see how many calories I'm taking in and how many I'm burning. According to these two systems, I'm taking in an average of 1500 calories a day and burning an average of 2500 calories a day. I'm not losing weight. "Exercise!" they tell me. So I exercise. Desert sun or desert monsoon, I walk an hour a day (minimum). I'm not losing weight. I make sure I'm not eating fats and sweets, cut out diet sodas because those are bad for you, increase fruits and vegetables, and I'm not losing weight. So we go to a weight loss clinic and they tell me, "You're not eating enough." Ummm, okay, that makes no sense, but ... okay. "You need to eat more ... but only what we tell you." And what they tell me is "Do you like these foods?" "Yes." "Cut them out. Do you like these foods?" "Can't stand them." "Double those." And they continue to whittle this down. "Eat more fruits and vegetables! Oh, not those fruits. Not those vegetables. These. They have no flavor and no content. These will work fine." I'm convinced now that the aim of any working diet is to find out what you like to eat and eliminate it. Oh, you've gotten used to that? There are a few things you still like? Eliminate them! Until I'm chewing on cardboard and rusty nails. That ought to do it. I hate not being able to eat what I like. I hate being told that whatever I like is likely bad for me. I hate doing all this dieting and exercise without results. And still I diet and exercise. See? "I do the very thing I hate."
Okay, that's not what Paul meant. But I'm not sure that isn't an accurate statement about how diets work. "Find what you like and eliminate it." Nor am I sure that it makes sense to keep doing it. And, yet, here I am, dieting ... still. Don't go telling me about your favorite foods. I'd just have to eliminate them.
3 comments:
When you dont move that mountains i need you to move.
when you dont part the waters so i might walk thru.
when you dont give the answers when i cry out to you.
I will trust , i will trust in you..
when will the answer: MY GRACE IS SUFFICIENT. be enough?
although we are to engage in the battle, it is not ours to win, that is already won.
and thats all i know....
Yeah ... but I'm still on a diet ...
It's always good to eat healthy, but the exercise thing might need adjustment. And while your point might not really about diet and exercise, I offer this alternative to consider. Rather than walking an hour, try running as hard as you can for 10-12 minutes. If you need to stop or slow down to catch your breath, do so, and before your heart rate returns completely to normal, take off sprinting again. Repeat for the duration of the 12 minute span.
The idea of this is that long walks or jogging for miles and miles forces the body to store fat to provide the energy for the duration of the exercise. But if the exercise is short bursts of high intensity, the body never really gets to the point of drawing on fat stores for energy (or does just barely). The result is that the body adapts and no longer stores fat.
I walk myself (because I have no motivation to do much else these days) and I've lately been trying to focus on this concept. My walks are shorter, but always brisk so that I can feel my heart rate rise and my breathing is heavy (which, with emphysema isn't hard to do). I still eat more than I should, so I'm more or less maintaining rather than losing. I'm trying to remain in a 5 lb range until I can kick myself in the butt to get serious.
This general concept is more in vogue these days, but I draw from a program with the acronym P.A.C.E., the meaning of which I've forgotten, but it might help if you wish to research it. The "inventor" is Dr. Al Sears. Something to consider.
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